Just a small post to thank the people at www.zam.com for their post about user created content in City of Heroes: http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=17624.
Everquest is also allowing it to some degree: http://www.over00.com/2008/12/player-created-quests-in-everquest.html
Of course I won't pretend Golemizer did it first (that's been happening way before my time in MUDs and surely elsewhere that I'm not aware of) but hey! Let me have my 30 seconds of bragging :-P
Monday, April 20, 2009
Quests built by players - What are the games allowing this?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Players' quests update now online
I posted some guidelines on how to use this system here: http://66.45.246.76/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=679
Two small quests have already been approved and I can't wait to see what players will be creating.
Of course, these new tools will be very useful to me to build more content, specially targeted at new players to start with.
A press release should follow once more content has been added.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
More sand in the box!
Ok, so Vendetta online were faster than me: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/pcc. Their system has more features also (like the ability to spawn NPCs). But hey, is it still good if I say that players will be able to create some quests in Golemizer?
Tonight I gave access to GMs to the test server so they can take a look at the "Quest NPCs" I added. These NPCs are quest givers that can be customized to provide 4 types of quests:
- Give item
- Defeat opponent(s)
- Talk (just talking to the NPC)
- Give answer (players will have to type the expected answer)
These are the first 4 types which should be enough to get started and play with the system a bit. Not very complex but it's a start. Players can set the text, prerequisites and rewards of each quests. They can also chain multiple quests on the same NPC.
The point of this system is first to put a bit more sand in the box but also to allow GMs and me to create new content much more rapidly.
Of course, some might remember that I didn't want to put "kill 10 rats" type of quests in Golemizer. Well, ever since the launch of the game, I keep getting requests to add these... Anyway, while it's possible to build "kill 10 rats" quests, the point is to give a tool to put more lore into the world. Currently, the world is a bit faceless. Players like the concept but are having a hard time to "get into the mood". Something's missing. Not really the "kill 10 rats" itself but that old guy that talks funny in that city that wants you to kill 10 rats.
My favorite type of quest is the "Give answer". You can't chose an answer, you have to figure it out. This can be an answer you can find on Google or this might be something that you would have to find in the game.
For example, "I think Dr Mad is up to something. Go in his lab and tell me the name of his evil plan.". The player first must find the lab and then look for "the name" he's been asked. He discover a golem with a special name, go back to the quest giver and type the name of the golem. Simple but again, just knowing the Dr Mad (that could be a player!) is up to something is adding flavor to the world.
A dedicated player could build a full storyline involving his character by using these Quest NPCs. Ok, I'm obviously very excited about this but I know that about only 1% of players will actually use this system (there's this pyramid somewhere that I should look for showing that very little players are of the builder type). At the very least, it's more tools for GMs and me!
More to come later.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Players' Bounties as PvE as PvP
Still working on adding content. Some new commands were added to the AI and now the sheriff is in.
The sheriff is an NPC that will reward you for hunting a specific golem owned by another player. As long as there are golems in the world, the sheriff will keep giving you missions to hunt them down. The number of missions completed is tracked down so badges or special rewards could be awarded after 50,100,1000 missions.
From now on, with all the new commands recently added, I should be able to add more quests without touching the code. Thinking of all the commands needed to track data in an efficient way was tricky at first but I finally figured a generic system that should be able to handle "go destroy", "craft", "gather", "go talk", "give", "pay" type of quests.
It's going well. End of june is still my targeted release date...
Monday, May 26, 2008
Badges, challenges, quests?
I had plans for a badge system but didn't want to add it to the game right now. However, I guess Golemizer was laking "Dings", which drive players and keep them playing until the next "Ding", content.
Until then, Golemizer was only (if you forget about the casual housing, chatting that some might enjoy as a graphic chatroom) a competitive game, actions coming from the players to battle for the best ranks. I guess that was a bad bet. It wasn't obvious what could be done, where the fun was unless players figured on their own "Hey, I want to be the top ranked player".
Basically, there was nothing obvious to do. So the badge system combined with the new commands I added to the AI are now allowing me to build what you can call quests (I prefer challenges).
The first challenge that I just finished is the crafting tutorial. The first version of the tutorial was only an NPC telling you the basics of crafting. The new NPC is more an interactive guide that teach the player each steps of crafting while keeping track of progress.
Step 1:
The NPC tells the player to train the skills needed to craft a forge. When the skills are learned, the NPC will switch to step 2.
Step 2:
The NPC teach the player how to gather resources and tell him which resources to gather to craft a forge. Once all resources are gathered, the NPC switch to step 3.
Step 3:
The NPC teach the player how to craft a forge, drop his free house he was given on account creation and how to drop the forge in the house. Once the forge is crafted, the NPC switch to step 4
Step 4:
The NPC tells the player which steps to follow to finally craft his first golem (a clockwork gnome) using the forge to craft the parts needed. Once the clockwork gnome is crafted, the NPC switch to step 5.
Step 5:
The tutorial is completed and the player crafted his first golem while learning about the basic systems of the game. The player receives a badge (Crafting tutorial completed), prestige points and some gold (I might throw in a special item too like something to decorate the house or something).
At any time, the NPC can tell which steps have been completed so a player could complete steps 1 to 3 then logout and continue another time. Once the challenge is completed, it cannot be done again (at least this one).
Here are some examples of challenges I can/will add to the game with the new commands. More challenges type will come as I get time but this should be a good start to help spring some interest in the game and possibly lead the players to their own challenges instead of leaving them alone with no clue of what to do:
- Gather X type of resources
- Defeat specific type of NPC
- Defeat specific type of NPC using a specific type of golem
- Gain X prestige points (milestone possibly opening titles)
- Create your own guild with X members and bring this guild to X prestige points
- Craft specific type of item requiring rare ingredients
Like I said, it's just a start but it now gives players some goals to achieve instead of just having players rankings.
Oh, one cool new item too. The frequency analyzer which connect to You Tube and allow players to set videos in it. While this can be used to put some random content in your house, it's also a first way to allow players to possibly create their own content (might be nice for RP!).
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